Tag Archives: toys

Yes, I go to great lengths to make tiny, Jewy accessories for my Playmobil and LEGO folk. But you don’t have to make a single thing in order to make toys Jewish. Sometimes, all it takes is a name change.

Look at this little Playmobil set ripe for conversion: #4686 Child’s First Day at School. See the parcels? Playmobil is German, and the set represents the German tradition of Schultute (school bags): big cones of goodies and school supplies for the first day of school. When I saw the box at a local toy store, I didn’t think Schultute, I thought Mishloach Manot. I saw two kids exchanging Mishloach Manot bags on Purim. For $3.29, I got a Jewish holiday scene and a mitzvah tableau, even though Playmobil doesn’t “do” Jewish.* Continue reading →

Everything about the seder is designed to teach kids. Symbolic foods, the four questions, songs, Rabbinic lessons and the many discrepancies therein: eating yet more matzah for dessert (afikomen), leaning on pillows at the table, all that dipping? But usually, seders are so long and boring not much learning goes on, except learning that seders are long and boring.

Re-enacting the plagues can make seders more educational and fun. We are commanded to think of ourselves as slaves in Egypt: toys, props and simple costumes facilitate this leap of the imagination. Continue reading →

InterfaithFamily.com (which is a great site, by the way, full of info and ideas and community) just posted an article about making bedtime Jewish written by Chief Education Officer Karen Kushner, with a link to a free pdf booklet: “Goodnight, Sleep Tight: Jewish Rituals for Your Interfaith Family.”

I am delighted Jewish bedtime is getting attention. Transforming the nightly routine into something Jewish is easy: just add a new element or two–something that feels comfortable and genuine. Whether a family is interfaith or not: it doesn’t matter: what matters is that at least one parent is committed to making every day (and night) more Jewish.

Please see myJewish Bedtime post for a detailed breakdown of every step of a typical bedtime progression, with plenty of suggestions about how to inject a bit of Jewishness. Continue reading →

Consider the Omer counted. Shavuot is over. And now, stretching before us is a couple of calendar pages of sun, humidity, chiggers, and porch-sitting.

I’ve just cleaned my screened porch for summer, and we’ve transfered some rug toys out to the concrete: Thomas and Friends and their endless track, Duplos, and wooden blocks. We are lucky to have Teenager’s old blocks: the thick, heavy kind we can really build with.

And, we are lucky to have some Alef Bet blocks, too. We have two sorts: the small, cheap kind and the big, expensive kind. I love both. The small, cheap kind (around 5 bucks) are the same size as our aged alphabet blocks—about an inch and a quarter—good for teetery towers and for crafty projects like, say, a Hanukkah menorah using blocks that spell out your kid’s Hebrew name.

The big, expensive ones (around 30 bucks) are the type of toy I kvell about to every new Jewish parent at synagogue. Why? They are big and fat and heavy; a pleasure to hold. They depict not just the Hebrew letters but pictures of animals as well, with the names in Hebrew. All artwork is not merely printed on, but carved out. Made by the Uncle Goose company, who make other fantastic specialty blocks like Braille, Russian, Chinese, and Hieroglyph.

We can’t get enough Hebrew stuff at our house. It doesn’t matter that Toddler can’t read, yet. He can sing the Aleph-Bet Song, which is a great start. And he knows a shin when he sees one on a mezuzah. I’m all for painless, natural learning, and it feels right to have blocks and posters and puzzles and books and placemats here and there: a sea of aleph-bet and alpha-bet ready for learning by osmosis.

Sources:

The small ones are from JET (Jewish Educational Toys). They have little pictures of holiday symbols and Jewish whatnots, too.

The big ones from Uncle Goose. At Amazon, OyToys, and the manufacturer. Made in USA out of basswood and child-safe inks.

I never actually claimed to be a balabusta. I said it was a title to which I aspired. So I can admit the following:
Until yesterday, all the Passover stuff was STILL OUT. We’ve been stepping over frogs and matzah trays and Miriam cups and place cards every day for weeks. I did put the Passover dishes away on time, but the decorations Continue reading →

Like this:

Jewish Star of David pasta. We’ve used these as bingo markers, “money” for dreidel games, decorations for art projects, “rubber” stamps and stamps for clay. We’ve dyed them (shaken in a ziploc bag with a drop of food coloring and alcohol, dried whilst spread over a surprisingly vast expanse of wax paper.). We’ve used them as sorting objects, Montessori-style. We’ve used them as noise-makers inside of, well, noise-makers. We’ve done everything with these except cook and eat them. Continue reading →

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Printable how-to: LEGO Dreidel

DIY LEGO dreidel

Hands-on Jewish Learning

From JOANNA BRICHETTO:
My goal is to help kids and grownups spend time together making Jewish things. I like stuff that is hands-on, attractive, non-fussy, cheap and real, and so fun no one realizes it's educational.

The value is in the doing, not just the being done, and in the conversations and questions that happen along the way. Every project comes with helpful and (hopefully) pleasant chatter, because my native compulsiveness and enthusiasm means that I’ve given the meaning, function, and possible permutations a lot of thought. You won’t need to do much planning, because I’ll have done it for you.

LEGO minifig Passover seder table

Defining the Terms

It doesn’t matter if you don’t live in the Bible Belt. The geographical modifier is a flag to indicate that the author is used to being outnumbered, without resources, and thus able to do just about anything from scratch. Newbies welcome. I used to be one, long ago.